Sex, Facebook and … espionage?
April 29th, 2011 | Defense | Posted by Stephen Losey
Wired’s Danger Room has the fascinating — and bizarre — story of @PrimorisEra, an alleged online temptress whose mysterious, sexy photos and national security know-how may have enticed military and intelligence officials to spill the beans in flirty social media conversations.
PrimorisEra (whose real name is apparently either Shawna or Shawn Gorman) claimed to be a Defense Department employee or contractor when talking to some men. To others, she allegedly claimed to work for the CIA’s weapons and arms control center. Some found her habit of pushing for information on their contacts and deployments “creepy.”
Last Friday, a fed-up female Defense contractor accused Gorman (on Twitter, no less) of being a social networking “honey pot,” or someone who uses sex appeal to trick men into leaking information. Almost immediately, Wired reported, Gorman shut down most of her social media accounts and largely disappeared from view. The Pentagon has now opened an investigation to see if anyone broke security rules when talking to her.
A woman claiming to be Gorman denied to Wired that she is a spy or trying to gather intelligence. Her numerous chats on Twitter, Facebook and other instant messaging services were simply friendly, flirtatious conversation, she said. Gorman’s defenders say she was, at worst, a wannabe who puffed up her contacts to get attention, and that she was unfairly ganged up on.
Whatever the truth is, this weird case should at least remind everyone handling sensitive information to be careful about what they say on the Internet — even when chatting with a sexy avatar.
Tags: bizarre